Let us be humans
A popular but flawed conception that suggests HR managers or personnel should read a blogger’s blog before hiring is, at least to me, an idea full of fresh manure.
I will say this again, in case you missed it: That judging a prospective employee based on his or her blog is a wrong attitude on many fronts.
People blog for many reasons: as a hobby, sharing ideas, co-learning, collaboration, showcasing skills and capabilities, musings, creative thinking, venting, brainstorming, for attention, and what not. But, I am yet to see people really blogging to get hired, unless their blogs exclusively tout their skills1.
My argument is that judging a candidate by the types of posts he or she writes is not just wrong, but plain absurd. Here’s some food for thought:
My manager was hiring someone. He mentioned to me that he was concerned about the candidate’s liking for heavy metal music. It was in his resume under interests. This thought didn’t sit well with my manager. But he hired him, inspite of it. That was some three years ago. Today, we don’t see a head-banger in rag-clothes or with such attitude, but we see a very disciplined, hard working engineer. Get my drift?
If you are an HR professional and you want to psycho-profile someone based on the candidate’s blog, then you are not doing justice to your job. In fact, you are cheating.
Humans are not robots. And unless you need robots, you will need to get them the way they are. They may have a strong opinion about things, they may have wacky hobbies and friends, but as long as they do not cross their line in the things that you care the most about, them being employees (in honesty, efficiency, keeping company secrets, professional attitude and talent among others), you shouldn’t have a problem.
Leave them be human beings. Let them have personas. If candidates realize that they might be psycho-profiled based on their blogs, slowly but surely, you will begin to see zombie writings, solely to put you and your company on a spin. My point is: go ahead take a look at blogs, but don’t form an opinion. A blogger may come on too strong online, but you might find him extra humble and down-to-earth good person in real life.
And what about the argument that a person tries to live by his blog not normally possible in his work or in professional life? Just because you have the convenience to dig up someone doesn’t mean you’re reading his or her mind.
People have radically different views and hobbies that are often not at all related to the work. People might be using blogs to channel their stored energy to, if nothing, to be themselves.
By encroaching on personal domains such as blogs, you would only hurt bloggers in their right to freedom of expression.
Don’t forget that you have the ultimate power to fire someone on grounds of in-subordination, rotten apple attitude, laxity, and any other terms that you may have added to the contract or would add. Then, why intrude the personal space? By doing so, you’ll only see or will eventually be seeking fake personas.
Update: Please be sure to read Ashish’s post on this topic as a prelude to this post, and a very constructive discussion we have been having in the comments there.
- This is not blogging. It is called self-pimping (to get noticed). And I will be the first person to tell you that it is not only alright, but it is, in fact, great. So such a blog is essentially: I do this to get noticed, get projects, get hired, get contracts, et al. An honest attempt to showcase one’s work or skills and even sometimes show collaborative skills, not to mention the generosity in selfless contributions (open-source software, community voice, et al) is a warm welcome. Isn’t this the sole reason we stand on the shoulders of giants? [←]
Your take on the matter is just opposite to my views
I replied to your comment on my blog.
Jul 26, 06 at 11:05Ashish, thanks for commenting and showing the other aspect of discussion in your post.
And I have to yours :).
Jul 26, 06 at 17:41